Three-body collision contributions to recombination and collision-induced dissociation. 1: Cross sections

摘要

Atomic and molecular recombination and collision-induced dissociation (CID) reactions comprise two of the most fundamental types of chemical reactions. They are important in all gas phase chemistry; for example, about half of the 196 reactions identified as important in combustion chemistry are recombination or CID reactions. Many of the current chemical kinetics textbooks and kinetics papers treat atomic and molecular recombination and CID as occurring only via sequences of two-body collisions. Actually, there is considerable evidence from experiment and classical trajectory calculations for contributions by true three-body collisions to the recombination of atomic and diatomic radicals, and that evidence is reviewed. Then, an approximate quantum method treating both two-body and three-body collisions simultaneously and on equal footing is used to calculate cross sections for the reaction Ne(sub 2) + H (rightleftharpoons) Ne + Ne + H. The results provide clear quantum evidence that direct three-body collisions do contribute significantly to recombination and CID.